


Second Chance

by infinitewritings



Series: The Heart of Harry Wells [1]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014), The Flash - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, F/M, Harry Wells is soft, Slow Build, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-26
Updated: 2019-11-26
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:28:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21568405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/infinitewritings/pseuds/infinitewritings
Summary: Eobard could not just leave, he had to leave his mark behind and over the years he had grown fond of her. They were never going to end up together but he wasn't ready to let her forget him. Every day, she'd slowly lose all the colours around her and then Harry walked in.He came in with that look, those dimples, the eyes, and answers but she wasn't ready to depend on him.
Relationships: Earth-2 Harrison "Harry" Wells/Reader
Series: The Heart of Harry Wells [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1574707
Comments: 3
Kudos: 18





	Second Chance

Her breathing was slow and short. Her hands were pulsating, and every vein kept vibrating in her body as she laid on the operating bed in Caitlin’s office. This is supposed to the one thing to undo Eobard’s final actions, but her heart kept threatening to jump into her hands. She kept her eyes squeezed together and her fists tight, so her nervousness would seep deeper into herself and not be on display for the team.

“I’m just going to put you to sleep, okay?” Caitlin’s voice was quiet and measured.

“Yeah.”

“And the body and the serum would do its own work.” 

“It _should_.”

“It will.” Harry’s voice was rough, almost calculated. She watched as he arched his back, crossed his arms, and continued to grind equations in his brain.

Never losing eye contact, Harry leaned away from the door frame and uncurled his arms as he walked towards her. As much as her mind wanted to forget Harrison, Harry’s presence wouldn't her. His walk, his voice, even his hair reminded her of him. Every hint of his smile kept burning her. Every day she wanted to retreat further from him and he would keep coming closer to her, with the whisper in his words and the comfort in his intelligence. The more he looked at her, the more she felt her heart beat faster while making everything else around her disappear. 

“Are you in pain?” There was no extra sigh in his voice as he shuffled himself to the corner of the bed staying at the furthest of the closest from her. 

“It’s nothing new.” The team kept hovering around them. They recognized the tug in her shoulders she gets with Harry and the warmth beaming from Harry. Her eyes danced around him, trying not keep looking at him. She didn’t want to register any piece of him in her mind. 

The first time Harry had spoken to her alone, she slapped him. It was supposed to be Eobard, not Harry but her anger had the best of her. He had kept his gaze down and never apologized but kept himself at her disposal. Everything about him was Harrison and she hated everything about him. She hated it more that he didn’t have Harrison’s blue eyes. 

Clearing her throat, she turned to her shaking hands as she tried measure her breaths and swallow her tensions. Her hands dug deeper around the blanket. “This is going to be quick?”

“Not instant, but quick enough that there shouldn’t be much pain. The body is trying to fight itself, so you will feel something. However, that just might be a good thing.” 

“Harry, if this doesn’t work—" Barry walked closer to her bed, his hand on his chin averting his eyes from her. 

“It has to. She’s already descending into the perpetual moment of no return, if, you know, she hasn’t already. As much as you four have tried, you don’t know how much dark matter was injected into her system and how to get it out of her system, how to slow the process, or if you have expedited the actual effects so this is just—"

“Harry, she’s right there.” Cisco broke through.

“It’s fine, Cisco, I know. This is our last resort.” 

“The injection is ready Harry.” Caitlin held the vial in her hand and gave her a little smile. “It’s time to let yourself have a little rest.” Caitlin placed the gas mask over her mouth and nose. Harry took in a large breath and tried to steady his hands as he placed the injection over her large vein and inserted the serum. 

Taking in a large breath, her eyes finally closed, and the serum swam through her body. 

_“You were the easiest. Say a few words, look into your eyes, share a few arguments and smiles and you were enthralled. Of course, it helped that you knew Harrison before and were already in love with him. I just had to say the right things." Eobard’s back was turned towards her. The entire team listened. Cisco and Joe stood near her while he kept talking._

_“All I needed to convince people that I was Harrison was you. And you did a great job.” Eobard faced her. She kept biting her lip, hoping her emotions wouldn’t spill over. But, the tears fell as he walked closer to her and every day of those 15 years kept flashing in front of her._

_“Eobard stay away from her.” Cisco kept his voice levelled as Eobard stopped in front of her._

_“I owe you my appreciation.”_

_“Harri—" her voice kept shaking._

_“Harrison couldn’t have appreciated you like me. Now that I’m finally going back to my time, you should get your closure too.” He rested one of his palms on her cheek and locked eyes with her. “So, thank you, for your help. You’re too good for any of these people here.” Eobard pulled her into a hug and as she hung in his arms, he pulled out a needle from his sleeve and pierced her shirt into her back freezing her in her spot as the matter engulfed her, spread into her blood, bulged out from her throat and outlined every vein in her eyes. Joe fired his gun and as it pierced Eobard’s shoulder the blood splattered her face._

She jolted from her bed, gasping for air, and tightening her fist around the sheets. Her throat filled with air and her screams engulfed the room. The black matter pulsed and radiated through her veins and every machine hooked up to her kept screaming. Her heart rate was elevated, her brainwaves were jumping, and her eyes kept watering. Every inch of her kept shaking as her screams kept piercing through the room and the pain electrified through her body. She could feel every vein as the blood cells and the dark matter kept fighting. Harry’s serum was supposed to separate them, help her cells fight the dark matter better so it couldn’t keep trying to take over her. Instead, every vein in her arm stuck out as it stayed outlined by the matter. Every light her eyes and she kept blinking to try to register any colour around her. The dark matter, angrier than before, continued to attack everything inside of her. 

“You were supposed to help me!” She wrapped her arms around herself as she tried to gasp for breaths. Her eyes burned into Harry who stood frozen in his spot, watching the dark matter engulfing her arms, neck, and eyes. Her arms were warmer, but every part of her body was shrivelling up. 

Around her, the team scrambled for the correct instruments and the useful medications. Barry was at her side instantly, rubbing her arms and her back. Caitlin busied herself in filling up an injection and she could hear Cisco reciting her vitals. To them this was a sign of her going to cardiac arrest and they had all come up with options to control it. Her body continued to shake in Barry’s arms and her eyes continued to dose in and out of consciousness as her mind began to shut down. Caitlin pierced her stabilizing serum into her bloodstream and Barry wrapped his arms around her. She kept her head buried in Barry’s chest and her hand gripped his shirt as her short, shallow breaths began to calm down. As the stabilizing serum slowly worked through her body, her heart rate returned to normal and finally catching a long sigh of relief she lifter her face away from Barry. 

“It’s okay, you’re okay.” Barry said while Caitlin rubbed her back.

“I don’t understand. It was supposed to work.” Harry’s voice was quiet as he took off his glasses and ran his hand through his hair. His brain was already calculating and grinding every formula and experiment he had to done to get here. It was supposed to work. 

“Harry, it’s okay.” Cisco patted Harry’s arm and moved towards the screens and scanned her vitals. 

“I know it was supposed to work.” Harry’s voice was for his ears only as his hands went from vial to vial to double check his work.

“You don’t know anything, Harry!” Everybody stared at her as she started to rip out the IV drip out of her hand and tried to steady herself. Tears were welling up in her eyes and threatening to break through her anger, but her hands kept rubbing them away. 

“If you would just let me understand where it all went wrong, I could—"

"I don’t need you near me! Whatever this is, it's staying, I don’t need your help!”

“You deserve to get better,” Barry cut in.

“We’ve tried **everything,** and it has all failed. If anything, the trials may have sped things up. It’s **not** working!” 

“But you don’t understand!” Harry yelled. He gripped the vial tighter in his hand keeping himself from hurling it across the room. “You don’t have to give up! I can help you! Why can’t you let me help you?!”

“Because I hate you!” The team’s eyes stopped at her. Taking a shaking breath, tears trailed down her cheeks. “I gave my life to you. I wanted to create a life with you. I wanted to create a future with you. I loved you.” Harry’s eyes softened as her voice turned into a whisper. 

“That wasn’t—" Harry took in a breath, “if you would just see me as myself and not as…as someone else, I can help.” 

“You did enough.” She looked at the team, “I’m leaving.” 

Her steps were slow and heavy as her shaky body walked through the door, towards the elevator and outside STAR labs. Every inch of her screamed and her head kept pounding but she made her way away from the lab and towards the one place that helped her feel safe. 

“We shouldn’t push her.” Caitlin broke through the silence as the rest of the team tried to clean up. Harry kept the vial tight in his hand, grounding him. Then he threw it against the wall. 

“We have to.”

“We can’t force her to do anything.”

“She is a ticking time bomb, she doesn’t have a choice.” Harry went to the computer and pulled up his experiments and numbers. 

“How are you so sure, Harry?” Cisco asked.

“Harry…” Iris waited until he stopped working, “why are you so worried about her?”

“She’s a part of this family, right?”

“But she never asked for your help. From the minute you saw her all you wanted to do is help her. What’s going on?” Harry could feel everyone’s eyes on him and he let out a loud sigh.

“I couldn’t save her on my Earth.”

“Wait—" Cisco broke through.

“She’s not your wife—" Barry tried to complete the sentence.

“No! No, no, she’s not. She was gone way before I had the chance to ask her.” Harry tried to busy himself as every little moment flashed through his mind. The way he held her hand as she laid in the hospital looking smaller than the day before. She had complained to him that she couldn’t see the sunrises properly anymore. He had helped her walk up and down the stairs because every inch of her couldn’t stay stable. He had sat through every doctor’s appointment with her as her grip on his hand got tighter than the last. He had watched her veins turn dark. He watched her writhe in pain as he held her wrapped in his arms. Harry had seen her close her eyes for the last time as she complained about missing seeing the blue in his eyes sparkle in the light. 

Harry had promised her that he would save her.

“What happened?” Caitlin asked.

“We don’t know. She didn’t get injected by someone, that’s for sure. But her body was flooded with dark matter and at that point, we never even thought of the possibility of it ever being dark matter. So, she was diagnosed with something along the lines of an incurable disease. We were given the lifetime solution of stabilizing agents—things that would help her walk straighter, prevent her from falling into cardiac arrest, things to keep her breathing. Every day she would be losing more blood cells and some days we would have better days. Every little atom of her was decaying in front of me and I could not stop it. I was just reduced to holding her in her arms as she kept regressing more and more in pain.”

“How did you find out what to do?”

“When it was too late. I promised her, every day, that I would find a cure. I promised her that I would take care of her and take her somewhere that would be out of the world, so she would never have to think about what she went through. The doctors would do their tests and I did mine. And finally, she asked me to stop and I think…I think it was because she knew it was too late.” Harry sniffled back any semblance of emotion and memory of sitting in her hospital room while he cried. “When she was gone, I kept doing my tests on samples of her blood. I studied every aspect and cell of those samples and continued to do so well into my marriage. Sometimes I question how my wife was able to let me continue but, I finally found out what I had to do.”

“But you were too late.” Cisco completed Harry’s thought.

“I was…too late.” Harry looked away from everyone and back to the screen in front of him. “She was long gone. And now, I have the chance to try again. I have the chance to fulfill my promise. It’s been years. I don’t even have a picture of her. This Earth-1 version of her is different. She has different ticks, different reactions, even her hair is different. Her smile is different. And she hates me, but I want to give her to chance to live and see the world fold out in front of her. I want to keep seeing her thrive and give her a chance to keep helping to save the world. I just…I just want her to be in the world.” Harry cleared his throat and tried to go back to work.

“You’re falling for her,” Cisco smiled at Harry’s back, "aren’t you?”

“One doesn’t just fall in love, Ramon. They discover it and grow into it.” 

The house felt massive. Every corner of it was scary and silent. She had promised herself that she would clean up the house, strip it of its possessions and start over. It’s been months and she’s never been able to take off the paintings, furniture, or the photographs. The team would go home, and she would stay at STAR lab and clean the Cortex, double and triple check the pipeline, or work the clear boards—anything to get her to not go home. 

Every photograph felt like it was staring at her and at the incision on the back on her neck burning her. She could feel Harrison, Eobard, watching her move, figuring out how to manipulate her, and realizing that she would have let him. She placed her shaking hands on the counter and counted her breaths and forcing her mind to think of something else. Harrison’s whispers kept replaying in her head and getting replaced by Harry’s face. Harry wasn’t able to look at her while she screamed at him. The walls have gotten paler around her ever since the dark matter. Her bright green was a pile of shapes. Eobard made sure she didn’t enjoy anything without him and the moment the team would share a moment with Harry, she could feel her heart flatline. 

“You still owe me a coffee, you know.” Barry’s voice rang in her ears after the air flew by her. 

“Don’t you know it's rude not to knock?” She turned to him with a smile.

“How are you feeling?” 

“Hungover. I need a nap.”

“You shouldn’t give up.”

“Barry—" 

“You’re our family and we need you. Every day you’re deteriorating and I…I don’t want that.”

“Ba—" She took a step towards and tumbled into his arms, her eyes blurred and began watering. She cleared her throat and held on to him. “Every time an idea fails that hurts.” 

“You looking like this, this hurts more.” He held her up and leaned her against himself. “Let Harry help.” He watched her bite her lip and swallow a sentence.

“He’s just seeing a problem to be solved.” Her feet were having a hard time balancing as they kept twisting the more she tried to stand up straight. She felt her ears burn up and sweat build up on her forehead.

“He wants to see you live. Let him try.” 

“I can’t.”

“Why?”

“Because, I rather hate him. I don’t want to start lov—” She let out a loud cough and bent over to take in a breath. Her chest kept closing in on her lungs, squeezing them tighter together. Her throat was dry and stuffy. Barry’s hand on her shoulder tightened as she fell to the ground.

“Hey…hey…look at me.” Barry’s voice kept whispering around her, but her breath felt stuck in her windpipe. She whimpered as she wrapped her hand around her throat but felt the heat of her body radiating off of herself. Staying on her knees with her fists planted on the ground, a sharp sound forced its way to her throat and pierced the room. 

Gasping from her screams, she curled into herself hugging her knees. Tears spilled from her eyes as her whimpering became more desperate. 

“Ba…Barry…I can’t. Barry, everything—I can’t feel…Barry I—" Her throat closed up as she kept searching for more air. Barry pulled her in his arms, whispering encouragements, and held her burning body close against his chest. His eyes were focused at the door and with his knees bent he took in a breath and charged towards STAR labs, leaving only his red lightening behind. 

Harry’s eyes were glued to the computer screen in front of him as he watched the recorded vitals after the injection. He had begun to record the time and measurements when Barry flew by him and laid her on the operating bed. Barry kept his hand on her arm as she kept twisting and turning on the bed, clawing at herself. 

Everyone could see the dark matter trying to jump out of her skin and her sweating trickling down from her forehead, shinning against her hands, and covering her shirt. Harry moved closer to her as her whimpers overtook in the entire room. His steps were cautious, and his touch was soft. 

She gasped under his touch and locked eyes with him—her eyes pleading and red. 

“Harry! I...” Her gasps tried to let her speak. 

“What happened?” Harry watched Barry as he shrugged and ran his hands through his hair.

“I was just talking to her and she just…she just collapsed” 

“I’ll try to get her stabilized.” Caitlin ran for her stabilizing serum. Under his hand, Harry could feel her shaking and burning up. Whenever their eyes would match, he could see the dark matter slipping through the veins of her eyes and dilating her pupils. 

“We need to—" Harry started and her gasps interrupted him. She held onto his arm and made her look at her.

"Harry…I—Harry, I can’t,” her breath was heavy and she tried to speak between her tears and her yells, "—everything is burning. Harry…I—" He moved himself to her eye level and she tried to grip at his arm, his chest, or his shirt. She needed to hold onto him. She couldn’t let him slip through her arms. 

“It’ll be okay.” Harry couldn’t believe himself. 

“I can’t…Harry…” her gasps were short and loud, "I can’t—I can’t feel anything.” Harry watched her stretch in his arms and Caitlin inject the serum carefully. His heart was pounding in his ears and his throat was dry. 

This was all his fault. 

Her movements slowed down, and her fingers became stiff. His eyes bounced from his board, the computer statistics and her soft grip on his shirt. 

“We need the injection again.” 

After Eobard held her in his arms and pricked her with dark matter, she didn’t feel the effects of the matter until after a few months. She had written it off as a miscalculation on Eobard’s part. It didn’t make sense, especially since he was very methodical about his every move. She had written it off as a last-minute surprise. 

The moment she did feel it was when she fell down the stairs at Jitters and the sunlight had disappeared. She could see the spark of Barry’s speed, but it was missing the red hues that had become her sense of comfort. That day she didn’t bleed, and the dark matter had started to bleach her skin. 

The next day it went away,

The day after, it came back and so back the shakes. That’s when Caitlin concluded that the dark matter was trying to make its own place in her body, but her body was rejecting every effort. Eobard may have wanted to turn her into a meta or maybe he just wanted the dark matter to attack her body. As her body and the dark matter fought, her body continued to disintegrate because like any foreign object the body wasn’t prepared for it. 

But then she got used to it. Then, Harry came in. He came in with answers, questions, the dimples, and those blue eyes that she knew were there.

Her groans broke through the buzzing machines around her as she rolled her head around her pillow. Every ray of light kept blinding her as she tried to look around the room. The needles stung her more as she tried to move her arms. With calmer breaths and a clearer mind, she started to remember the most recent moments.

She remembered Barry, the colours of his flashes, and her stiff body.

She remembered Harry and his crumpled face as she gripped his shirt.

Every time she moved her arms a string of cramps travelled up her body and her joints cracked under the pressure. She opened her mouth to let out a groan and broke into a series of coughs with her dry throat. She bounced her eyes from corner to corner and tried to scan every bit of the room and saw the large windows reflecting the dark cityscape and felt the light, fresh air hitting her blanket. 

Sucking in a large breath, she planted her stiff hands on the bed around her and with a constant groan tried to pull herself up. Her room spun around her when she sat up and her eyes tried to readjust. 

“You shouldn’t do that too quickly,” a rough voice broke through the silence and her eyes following the sound settled on Harry’s moving body as he walked closer to her. 

Her eyes watched his every move. 

He looked different. His jacket looked darker. His jeans reflected more shades of black.

The lights surrounded him. 

She couldn’t let herself break eye contact and watched him as he grabbed her arm and rested his hand on her back helping her sit up slower and straighter. She watched every muscle move as he helped her and noticed how his messy hair, his messy brown hair, stuck out of place. Harry didn’t look at her, but her eyes were locked on him as he leaned her back on the headboard of the bed. 

“The blood must have rushed to your head after laying down for so long.” He said after fixing the pillow on her back. He matched her eyes and realizing her stare she blinked away and focused on the room around her. 

“What happened?” Her voice was hoarse and as she continued rubbing her eyes and her face to wake herself. Harry was silent—more than usual. And again, her eyes settled on him. He was tired, almost sleep deprived like she slept the hours for him. The lights around his collar were brighter than the lights surrounding his hair. 

Motioning to her arms, he said, “look at your arms.”

She unrolled the blanket off of herself and turned her wrists over and saw skin. Under her skin she could make out the hints of green and blue in her veins and no black. Her skin was the olive, almost tanned colour she had grown up with and forgotten about after the dark matter. 

“Wait…” She took a double take at her arms and felt her face, feet, and hands squeezing a little bit before she moved to the next body part. “It worked?!” 

“Not completely. There are still traces of dark matter in your system but your body is doing a lot better job at protecting you instead of killing you—like it was doing before.” Her eyes were pinned to her arms as her hand kept massaging her veins. Every single time she would see the greens and the blues but no blacks. Her skin was no longer prodding and the thin dark matter lines were no longer visible. Her skin carried no reminiscence of an imminent death. Her skin felt soft instead of the dry and stiff touch she was starting to get used to. She wanted to see her eyes and her face. She wanted to see if her cuts and bruises actually bleed and didn’t just spill out more dark matter. 

“You still need more of the injections, to keep fighting the dark matter but otherwise everything should be stable.” Harry watched her reintroduce herself to her skin as she checked every inch of herself.

“Your serum worked, Harry! You did it! It didn’t take too long! It worked so well, I can’t believe this! Everything looks—"

“You were gone for 8 days.”

She finally looked up at him and with a question forming on her lips she scrambled around herself to find something to confirm the date. A STAR labs computer’s screen flashed the date and time and she could also make out the hints of navy in the logo. Suddenly, she could feel every itch in her throat, the dryness in her eyes, the stiffness in her grip, and the tightness in her joints. She remembered crying in Harry’s arms and she remembered when he injected his serum again. She remembered voices around her, but she never saw any faces. 

“I can’t—" she looked up at him and her breath got caught up in her throat. “8 days?”

“We thought we were going to lose you.” Harry took in a breath, “I thought…I thought I lost you.” She watched as he tried to dance away from his confession and break eye contact from her to look around himself. Clearing his throat, he tried to keep the room filled with words. 

“You should start seeing things differently. The dark matter is not only ejecting from your arms but from your brain matter, your muscles, your eyes. We still haven’t understood what exactly affected you the way it did. But, the way you were convulsing when Barry brought you back, was most likely your body fighting back. Considering how long the matter had been inserted the cells were fighting back a lot more than anyone’s body is used to. The serum was a catalyst for the entire process. Ms. Snow had been reading your vitals every day, so we were sure things were returning back to normal; however, you weren’t waking up…” Harry continued talking but her eyes softened realizing the reds in his cheeks and the pinks in his skin. Through the incandescent lights, he was shining in front of her and his eyes, the ones that looked charcoal to her were bright. They were blue, they were soft. They were an ocean. They didn’t have the cobalt like Harrison’s did. Harry was submerged in colour. 

“Is everything alright?” Harry interrupted himself and focused on her. Blinking her eyes, she realized the tears forming at the corners of her eyes.

“I—" wiping her eyes, she cleared her throat and tried to grind her brain to change her thoughts, but her words spoke out before she was able to consider what she was saying. “Your eyes…they’re blue. I thought you wouldn’t…Harrison had blue…but your eyes...” Her throat dried up and her words were stuck. 

Harry had blue eyes. 

They weren’t Harrison’s blue eyes. 

Tears started to well up in her eyes and threatened to fall as she continued to realize his differences and actually see Harry as Harry. Her heart threatened to jump out of her chest and her hands shook—remembering Harrison’s smile and seeing Harry’s softer smile he’d get while looking down. She could hear Harrison’s quiet, breathy voice and have it replaced with Harry’s sharp, angry voice. She could see the darkness Harrison had in his subtle blue eyes that had a tinge of green and replacing it with Harry’s shinning clear blue eyes. She had spent so much time hating him and comparing him and convincing herself that Harry was the same, right down to the dimples. Her lip quivered as her eyes danced around his face and she saw the way he held himself up, the broadness in his shoulders, and the constant messy hair. Harry was busy saving her and she was stuck in noticing his mistakes. He willingly listened to her anger and she never gave him a chance. 

Harry clutched his hands to his side to keep himself from reaching out to her and wiping her tears. She was still seeing only Harrison. She was still seeing someone else in him. He wanted to hold her face in his hands and tell him that Harrison was someone else. Harry wanted to remind her that she has a chance to be happy again and she can start finding her happiness again and he just wanted her to live. Even if it wasn’t with him. He wanted to save her. 

“I should…I’ll go get the team.” He whispered as he turned away from her. He could hear her sniffle back her tears, but he could feel her eyes on the back of his head. Stopping at the door, he took in a breath.

“I’m not him.” Harry’s hoarse, sharp voice was quiet. Every single sound in the room silent. “I promise.” 

**Author's Note:**

> This is dedicated to a very special friend. Without her support this story would have been really difficult to finish, but here we are, at the end and already planning another one.


End file.
